The latest eShop release of Sunsoft's 1988 NES classic, Blaster Master, marks the title's third Virtual Console appearance. With the game previously sighted on the Wii and more recently the 3DS, now it's the Wii U's turn to host this side-scrolling and top-down platform shooter that has since spawned an entire series.
The western...

Tri-Strip is a puzzle game about placing strips of triangles into a grid to make squares, which clears up space and nets you points; using the stylus, touchscreen and a single button, you can strategically drag, drop and rotate pieces into open spots. It's a style of play that requires a little bit more hesitation and thought when...

One of the first 'cute 'em ups' following Konami's Twinbee, Fantasy Zone first launched in Japanese arcades in 1986, but is better known in the west for its decent Master System conversion. Iconic protagonist Opa-Opa also sneaks in cameo appearances in many Sega games, most recently as a playable character in Sonic...

Mahjong is something of a cultural institution in the East, widely played to this day throughout China, Japan, and South Korea. For such an enduring board game, the 3DS eShop has seen no shortage of adaptations - of the basic Solitaire version, in any case. In fact, there's almost an embarrassment of options available...

Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy+ is a slightly peculiar release - it's an arrival with little to distinguish itself from the original aside from New Nintendo 3DS-only features, yet it's naturally being marketed for the original portable models too. The additions are minor yet fun, so it feels rather like an update of content...

Announced briefly last year and shown off in a recent Nintendo Direct, IRONFALL Invasion certainly turned some heads. It's one of the very few third person shooters available on the 3DS, developed by the relatively unknown VD-Dev - although it's been around for almost two decades and has developed several good games, it's yet to truly...

Originally released as a WiiWare title near the end of that service's lifetime, Drop Zone: Under Fire has been ported to the 3DS in an attempt to bring virtual base-jumping action to the handheld audience. Whether or not you enjoyed the original release, it's undeniable that this arcade style game's transition to the 3DS hit...

Renegade Kid's episodic Moon Chronicles - an updated port of the Nintendo DS title Moon - has now delivered Episodes 2-4 as downloadable content, allowing players to finally finish the entire game. As a first-person shooter, Moon Chronicles stands out on the eShop and is a welcome change from the vast collection of puzzlers...

Monster Hunter is a pivotal franchise for Capcom, consistently delivering the company's biggest sales and securing its profits; it's a phenomenon in Japan. Elsewhere, however, it's a respectable success without truly flourishing, succeeding in capturing a relatively small, dedicated audience but struggling for mainstream...

Just one year after Mega Man Zero, Inti Creates released a sequel for the Game Boy Advance spin-off. That might sound a bit quick, but Mega Man Zero 2 is no mindless cash-in. It took the sturdy foundation set by its predecessor and built upon it in impressive ways, while also smoothing out the rough edges. On top of that it wove an...

Men like our beloved Vice-President of Earth are truly one of a kind. Maybe it's the shocking red hair, the gleaming white smile, or the fact that his suit looks freshly pressed even after taking a full night's sleep in it. We can't put our finger on it, but something about him just...makes him seem...

From the title alone, it's pretty easy to tell that Frenchy Bird is yet another in the line of Flappy Bird imitators released on the Wii U eShop. Yet whereas some of its competitors have been content to merely replicate the feel of the original, Frenchy Bird makes the bold move of replicating it with personality. Goofy music,...

ATTENTION ALL RESIDENTS OF THIS FINE, BLUE PLANET WE CALL EARTH!
Permit me a moment and I'll show you that role playing games don't all have to be about swinging swords and finding mystical artifacts. They don't have to use that tired old fantasy setting we've grown so used to, or even star a typical protagonist! Here, your...

Creating a working puzzle takes a certain level of skill, even more so if you wish to make it interesting. The Quell series really seems to pay a special mind to the puzzle as a form of craft, presenting its challenges to the player while also attempting to build a serene journey through them. Quell Memento, the latest iteration to...

One of a growing number of indie titles appearing on the Wii U eShop, Breezeblox is a block-rolling puzzle game from début developer Brennan Maddox that, on first glance, seems to owe more than a little to mobigame's cube-based classic EDGE. Beyond the minimalist aesthetic and Cartesian conceit, however, they're very different games, and...

Publisher Gamebridge's GO Series of DSiWare games seems to have faded out with 2012's release of GO Series: Undead Storm, but that doesn't mean the properties are completely gone. In a move that no one expected developer G-STYLE has released a sequel to the aforementioned property on the 3DS eShop titled Undead S

Atmosphere holds a lot of weight to a game's appeal. Case in point: for all the popularity of gritty military shooters and edgy, hyper-realistic open world games today, there seems to be a sizeable demographic of players wearied by the very thought of jumping into these genres. Beyond disinterest in their gameplay, their lack of...

When Gunman Clive arrived as a budget, bite-sized slice of action platforming on the 3DS in late 2012 it unsurprisingly earned a lot of praise. Its intentionally grubby paper aesthetic and simple, highly polished gameplay seemed like a loving - and skilful - homage to franchises such as Mega Man; that didn't go unnoticed by...

When you think of a tower defence game, what usually comes to mind is a long, winding path, with various build spots situated around it. As you defeat enemies, you earn more money to place units on these spots, and they will automatically attack any enemies that come within range.
However, while that might be the most common...

Mahjong is a tile-based game that is utterly steeped in history and mystery – nobody really knows how old it is, as many different sources claim different dates of conception, and it seems nobody's keen to agree any time soon. This Chinese game is highly regarded in the East, but its presence in the West is significantly less...